Romancing the Sorcerer's Stone

Chapter 20: Golden Snitches

March 2004 — The Burrow, England

Harry sighs, slouching further down the sofa where he'd thrown himself after eating far too much at one of Molly's Sunday brunches. "We're not going to be able to do a lot of searching in muggle scuba gear. And Zabini will likely only give us one shot at it." He rubs his eyes. "I wish we had a metal detector."

Malfoy, sprawled on the couch next to him, raises a quizzical eyebrow. "What's a metal detector?"

"It's... well, I'm not sure exactly how they work." He shrugs helplessly. "Anyway, they're muggle things. They can find bits of metal buried in the dirt. People mostly use them to search for buried treasure, but honestly I think they're kind of gimmicky. Dudley and Uncle Vernon got one, once, and I got to play with it a bit when Dudley got bored of it after he didn't find anything after five minutes of wandering around the yard. Too bad there's not a wizarding version."

Malfoy scoffs, leans over to flick Harry's forehead. "It's a diamond, Potter, not made of metal."

Harry can tell Malfoy is gearing himself up to launch into the standard 'but you wouldn't know that because you grew up poor' teasing, and steels himself, but instead he stops, mouth part-way open, staring at him.

"Malfoy?" Harry waves a hand in front of his face.

Malfoy lights up, which, honestly, isn't the reaction he was expecting.

"Harry!" he exclaims, eyes sparkling, "You're a bloody genius!"

That's really not what he was expecting. "Sorry, what?" He must have heard him wrong. Did he space out again?

Malfoy ignores him. At least that's normal, Harry thinks, bemused.

"That's exactly what we need! It won't even be that hard; we'll just have to... Pansy! Hermione! We need your brains!"

Bill wanders over after a few minutes, drawn by the intense discussion that's taken over their corner of the living room, followed by the Malfoys and Arthur.

Ron, who's been watching with a strange expression on his face as he rubs Hermione's shoulders, breaks in suddenly.

"You don't even need a physical device, though — you just need to modify a detection spell. Although... Having some way to trigger it when you can't spare the attention for a spell might help..."

Malfoy stares at him in astonishment. "Ronald, I never thought I'd say this, but you're brilliant!" He claps him heartily on the back.

Ron grimaces. "Just don't call me Ronald ever again. I feel like I'm in trouble whenever someone does that."

Molly and Hermione share a knowing smirk and Ron colors. Malfoy just laughs. "You prefer Weasel, then?"

"If I can call you Ferret in return."

Malfoy snorts. "I don't think I'm ready to call you 'Ron' yet, so Weasley will have to suffice for now."

Ron looks relieved. "Good. Not sure I'm ready to call you 'Draco' either, Malfoy."

—

By the time they leave, once brunch has stretched well past dinner, they've made a fair bit of progress. Stranger still, they've all got plans to meet up again the following week for further research. Molly doesn't protest — Harry knows she loves hosting their gatherings, and he secretly thinks she would do it more often if she thought she could get away with it — and it's so nice to see everyone getting along. Strange, but nice.

This 'Dark magic detector' is turning into a fascinating bit of spellwork, and he can practically see the wheels spinning in Hermione's head as Ron helps her into her coat. Ron makes an exasperated face at him as he herds Hermione toward the floo. Harry knows she'll be up all night researching, but he can't find it in himself to mind.